Too easy as Rafa reigns supreme

BETTER BY THE DOZEN

DOMINIC Thiem had Rafael Nadal exactly where he wanted — until reality bit.

Exchanging massive baseline blows with the sport’s clay court emperor, Thiem created opportunity and doubt.

And then, as he always does, Nadal crushed the life out of the challenger.

“After these two sets, I dropped a little bit my level, then Rafa, who won this tournament 12 times, he stepped on me,” Thiem said.

From hard-won parity at a set apiece, Thiem was jettisoned 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.

When it was done, Nadal 12 Titles in 2005-08, 2010-14, 2017-19. First player to reach this figure in the same grand slam 93-2 Win-loss record (lost to Robin Soderling in and Novak Djokovic in ’15) 42-6 Sets win-loss in finals 7 Losing finalists: Mariano Puerta (’05), Roger Federer (’06-08, ’11), Soderling (’10), Djokovic (’12, ’14), David Ferrer (‘13), Stan ’09 occupied a place in history no other tennis player has explored as the winner of the same Grand Slam 12 times.

“He played, I think, outstanding, because especially Wawrinka (’17) Thiem (’18-19). and MEN’S GRAND SLAMS 20 Roger Federer 18 Rafael Nadal 15 Novak Djokovic 14 Pete Sampras 12 Roy Emerson 11 Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver Dominic in the first two sets I played very good tennis,” Thiem said. “What he was performing I think is unbelievable.

“There has to be a reason why he’s that successful.

“I mean, he won 18 Grand Slams, which is a big number, which is only two less than Roger (Federer).

“So definitely he’s one of the greatest of all time. Today, as well, I saw why.

“I played very good the first two sets, and then I had a little drop, which is against most of the players not that bad, but he took the chance and stepped right on me.”

For Nadal, this was the most precious of his Paris dozen.

Thiem and other players must have been buoyed when Nadal – coming off another knee injury – wallowed during the early stages of the claycourt swing.

A trio of semi-final finishes in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid would have bolstered most players, but not Nadal.

“After the first round in Barcelona, I was able to stay alone for a couple of hours in a room and think about it, and think about what’s going on, what I need to do,” he said.

“And (there were) a couple of issues that I had to decide, no? One possibility was to stop for a while and recover my body.

“And the other was to change drastically my attitude and my mentality to play the next couple of weeks.”